Moods, Memories & Mayo | A collection of new paintings drawn from nature and from the imaginative memory of painter Paul Guilfoyle.

"This is my first show in Kenny’s in six years. Six years of experimenting on different styles, techniques of painting, always returning to the real roots of why I paint. The landscape itself. Memories of the West, filtered through the years, led me into some of the works, into the moods of hill walks, sunsets , calm waters, billowing skies, distant light and flaring colours. “The Way Down” with the calm, sunlit scene below is the memory of rain-lashed, wind-scoured walks descending through the clouds into a kinder place below. Dún Briste at Downpatrick Head, (Remembered), juxtaposes the headland against the sea stack from an imagined position on the cliff while the” Autumn dusk near Clifden” emanates through a memory of still water and autumn hues .

Many of the landscapes are of Mayo, some of Galway, with river and woodland scenes from around Abbeyleix.

Autumn is the dominant season and mood of the show." PG

Paul Guilfoyle has devoted much of the time since deciding to become a full-time artist to the praise and glory of the locations of childhood family holidays spent in Connemara and West Mayo. The rest of the time he has spent exploring other parts of the country like Donegal, the Midlands, the Dingle Peninsula, the Sceilig Rock off the coast of South Kerry. He seeks out areas that have the quality of spiritualizing their past and their present.

His evocative canvasses are closely observed and recorded with a searching eye. They are refreshingly unsentimental, never sombre and expressed with clarity and vigour. His firm and clean handling of the paint captures magic moments and a real feeling for the dramatic effects of light on nature. His studies of trees in sunlight have an almost impressionist liveliness in their broken lights. In spite of the great geographical variation in his work, he has managed to preserve his individuality and his highly identifiable style. He is a master of the bold and confident brushstroke.

Paul has exhibited widely throughout Ireland and is represented in many important collections. This is his eighth exhibition at The Kenny Gallery.